title: Factors affecting the perception of recovery quality in horses after anaesthesia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A significant effect of gender, experience and background, i.e. an evaluator's relationship with horses as equine anaesthetists, orthopaedic surgeons, practitioners or owners, on perceptions of recovery quality after anaesthesia would reduce the validity of recovery quality scoring systems.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effects of evaluator background, experience and gender on their perceptions of recovery quality; and questionnaire response rate as a function of background.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 440 potential evaluators were invited to evaluate the video-recorded recoveries of 24 horses using a visual analogue scale (VAS) in which 0 = worst, 100 = best possible recovery. A mean score was generated for each of the 1-24 recoveries within each background group. These were compared using Spearman's rank correlation. The effect of gender and experience on VAS scores were analysed using an ordinal logistic regression after scores were categorised into 'intermediate, 'worst' and 'best' recovery categories based on median, 25th and 75th percentile VAS scores, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall response rate was 35%. The greatest was from the anaesthetists (78%) followed by surgeons (43%). The response rate among owners and practitioners was 26%. Correlation among VAS scores across all background groups was high (Spearman rank > 0.90; P < 0.001). Among the combined veterinarians, there was no significant gender (P = 0.551) or experience (P = 0.103) effect. Among horse owners, the effect of experience was not significant (P = 0.116) although gender was (P = 0.027). Male horse owners awarded significantly greater scores than females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When VAS are used to grade recovery quality, neither the background nor the gender of veterinary evaluators affects quality perception. Male owners awarded greater scores than female owners, implying that they are less critical of recovery quality and a gender effect among horse owners must be considered when VAS are used to score recovery quality.
authors.affiliation: Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Farmer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chase-Topping
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lawson
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Clutton
mesh_terms: D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000662:veterinary*; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006736:Horses / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000662:veterinary*; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: anaesthesia; horse; recovery quality; scoring